Scientific Summary No 42
related to IUFRO News 4, 2008
Forests, Bioenergy and Climate Change
By Mohammed Ellatifi, IUFRO General Board Member
An international conference on “Forests,
Bioenergy and Climate Change” was held
from 25-26 March 2008 in Casablanca,
Morocco. The following issues were on
the agenda: Forests and Development;
Bioenergy; Climate Change; and Adaptation to Climate Change.
The Conference focused on the current
state of knowledge of climate change conditions in different regions of the world,
and the impacts of these conditions on
forest management and conservation. It
also discussed the topics of energy and
bioenergy consumption, as well as the
role of forests in the mitigation of global
warming, through carbon sequestration.
In his keynote speech, Mohammed
Ellatifi, Senior Forester, and Chair of the
international NGO “Sylva-World for Development and the Protection of Forests and the Environment”, Morocco, gave an overview of deforestation in the
world and its consequences on climate change. He noted
that deforestation and forest degradation accounted for
around 20% of global greenhouse emissions, having direct
impact on the earth’s biodiversity and the millions of rural
communities who live in, and around forests, and depend on
them for their livelihood. He underlined that the most efficient and less costly way to curb climate change trends was
to halt deforestation in developing countries, and added that,
until there was a political will to preserve the forests and their
destruction, deforestation would continue.
Keynote speaker Bernard Mallet from the French Institute of
Agronomical Research for Development (CIRAD) centred his
speech on the wood energy channels in the tropics, within
the framework of climate change, putting emphasis on the
role and prospects of carbon economy in resource sustainable management.
Photo (Fettah): Conference Opening Ceremony
From left to right: Dr. Mohammed Ellatifi, Conference Chair;
Mr.Adil Said, Forest Department; Mr. Mzabi, representative of
the Wali of the Great Casablanca; Pr. Barkaoui, Chait of the
University Hassan II – Ain Shock, Casablanca; Ms. Amal
Haddouche, Director General of the Renewable Energies
Centre, Marrakesh.
The conference received a message from Dr. Ahmed
Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD). In this message, Dr. Djoghlaf welcomed the
Casablanca conference on “Forests, Bioenergy and Climate
Change” and gave an overall description of the world situation
of biodiversity and forests, within the framework of the actual
situation of the climate change threat.
The programme with details of the speakers and the titles of
the presentations can be found at the conference website
http://www.sylvaworld.fr.fm. Selected conference papers will
be published in specialized reviews.
The “Forests, Bioenergy and Climate Change” conference in Casablanca attracted 143 registrants from 25 countries from
the five continents. Its organization was financially assisted by the University Hassan II - Ain Shock, of Casablanca, and
CIRAD, France. The conference was co-sponsored by IUFRO Units 4.02.01, 7.01.00, 8.00.00, and the IUFRO Task Force
on Forests and Carbon Sequestration.
The conference encompassed 8 sessions in which a total of 22 verbal presentations were delivered on a variety of topics,
such as: Forests and carbon dioxide; bioenergy and food supply; contribution of forest management to the anticipation of
climate change; strategy adaptation to climate change; disaster risk reduction; governance adaptation and policy to cope
with climate change.